Libra dead or alive? What about Walmart Coin?

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I read a post by @shanghaipreneur in which he talked about Libra as a success. I think he made many valid points about this project being not dead yet, and with time and money, which Mr. Mark Zuckerberg has plenty of, this project may yet see the light of day in India or some other enterprising country, that decides its in their own best interest to become the host country to this potentially disruptive financial instrument.

I especially liked his views on Walmart, as I personally feel Walmart is positioning itself to expand its current financial services to the millions of its customers and employees through a “Loyalty Coin”, instead of a “stable coin”. I think Banks tolerate stable coins because their overall market caps have been small and their reach has been very small, mainly cryptocurrency investors fleeing volatility and currency traders trying to make a buck. But a Facebook stablecoin was to large to let live, for now. But a Walmart Loyalty Coin May be just stealth enough, and Walmart’s All American image may be just shiny enough, that Walmart may get approval for something Facebook may not yet have enough political support for...yet. The only thing constant is change.

I think Walmart is really up to something big with their coin:
Walmart has tried to be your bank. In the past Walmart applied to the necessary regulatory agencies for a broad license to create financial institutions in its stores. This effort was met with unusually heavy resistance and even Walmart, whose owner Tom Walton, was at the time the richest man in the world with a personal net worth over 12 Billion dollars, he lost this struggle to be a bank and all that entails.

Walmart’s customers are a size able portion of the unbanked in America. The banks, through the FDIC publish data every year on growing number of the unbanked in America, who are by most definitions described as people with no checking accounts or credit cards, who don’t have access to affordable credit, they pay high interest rates to companies like Pay Day loans, and these are people who buy the majority of their purchases with cash.

I think these people are the perfect customers for a cryptocurrency stable coin like Walmart Coin.
Why? These people have been pushed to the fringes of financial society and deemed not credit worthy.
They are already off the banking grid, but not by choice. They need inexpensive and portable banking services.
They already trust Walmart to lower the costs of the goods they need in everyday life. They could be eager utilizers of “Walmart Credit” a consumer loyalty program tied to this cryptocurrency, which would give them access to credit and goods that are out of the reach of cash buyers, like new cars.

Walmart tried to be the bank for this huge population of consumers who have made the name Walmart one of the most widely known names in the western world. They failed years ago, when there was no Bitcoin, no blockchain. This time is different.

Walmart has the money, to hire enough developers with expertise in both the front end and the backend to build the cryptocurrency similar to the SMT we are developing to create the ultimate Loyalty Program.

Walmart has a vision, I believe to create credit and combination fiat and cryptocurrency accounts that aren’t tied to any one location, but are tied to Walmart. Walmart already has a division called Walmart Financial Services. They already have credit services. Expanding into cryptocurrency is their work around the highly regulated banking and finance industry.

Keep your eyes on this space , it’s going to stay to stay interesting.

✍🏼 by Shortsegments.



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